swimming with the fishes
by tune of water
Summary: the doctor and donna visit the soon to be sunken city of atlantis and uncover a sinister plot set by the king to keep the commoners unaware. the doctor get married! kinda threw that last bit in,in the summary i mean in the story it was planned
1. the condition

Swimming with the Fishes

**Swimming with the Fishes**

"But I still don't get it."

"Donna to be honest, I don't think you ever get anything." A look of shock mixed with anger crossed Donna's face.

"It was a simple question! My only point was how a story of an undersea kingdom that doesn't exist get passed so far down the generation line unless it does really exist!" they had started a conversation about Atlantis after Donna had been pushed in to a large lake with some people with unfortunate limb mutations and thought she had found the undersea city.

"Well, it did exist but that was a long time ago and visitors weren't really aloud." The Doctor scratched his head and looked at the floor of the tardis, hoping Donna wouldn't realize that a time machine could go back to that long time ago.

"Well in case it escaped your notice sunshine, we are in a time machine! That kinda means we can go to any time we bloody well please!"

"Now there is no need to swear, I just wasn't so fond of the king that's all, he kinda tried to kill me when I tried to stop the sinking of Atlantis." The Doctor held his breath sending telepathic signals to Donna to drop the subject.

"Well we don't have to see the king now do we?" guess the signals didn't make it. "And how come you can stop the sinking of Atlantis but I can't try to help the people of Pompeii in that volcano explosion?" she had a small point.

"That was different! And visiting Atlantis is not the greatest ide-"

"Do it or I won't stop bugging you until your head blows up!" Donna added.

"Fine! We go. But I have one condition."

"And what would that be?" With Donna's special sweet little girl voice you would never know how much of a pain she really was.


	2. strange fruits

Swimming with the Fishes

Swimming with the Fishes

I know I suck at writing, but I would like to get some reviews if that's ok!

"So what is the condition?" Donna was becoming impatient.

"The condition is that you can never use the _I will annoy you until your head explodes _thing again." He was only saying it because she really would annoy him until his head blew up.

"Done. Now lets go to Atlantis!" Donna's mood completely changed to one of excitement.

The Doctor began punching in numbers of dates and latitude and longitude. He figured it best to go only a few months after the encounter with the king because any longer and they would be landing thousands of miles below the oceans surface. He always found it funny how close Atlantis was to the U.K. without anyone ever discovering it. Yet.

The tardis whirled to life after one last hit on the rustic time wonton maticulator. As they shot through time and space the tardis shook wildly sending both of them flying left and right and even up once or twice. Donna gave one last oof as the tardis came to a stop, but this didn't slow her down. She ran to the door and threw it open. Stepping out she looked for the first time at the currently above ground city of Atlantis.

The city looked larger and more advanced since the last time the Doctor had been here. But that was almost hidden by the hundreds of swarming people. Random shouts could be heard from all directions, as far as what they were saying it was all babble.

Suddenly a loud bop, which sounded like a note from a xylophone, could be heard. Everyone stopped moving. The silence grew. They all had fear on their faces as they looked toward the ceiling of the large dome that now covered the entire city.

"That wasn't here last time" the doctor barely got out.

Following it milliseconds later was, " this is only a friendly reminder curfew is in two hour, I repeat two hours!" her cheery voice was almost sickening. "Thank you, have a nice day!"

Another bop and the crowd burst to life again, relief apparent on their faces.

"There wasn't a curfew last time I was here either!" the Doctor was astonished with all the changes. He was interested to find out why. "Come on!" he took hold of Donna's arm and yanked her along to the information desk for tourists.

"Can you tell me about the modifications to the city please?" the Doctor asked in his sweetest little boy voice.

"Would you like a tour?" the woman asked fro behind the desk.

"No thank you I want to know about the modifications please." The Doctor was starting to become impatient.

"Would you like to take a tour?" she asked again.

"Uh Doctor I am no genius but I think she is a robot of some sort." Donna stuck in before the Doctor reached over the desk to strangle her.

The Doctor looked as though he had been slapped but quickly reanimated himself. Apparently he had an ego and it was bruised. He took his sonic screwdriver and went to stand behind the desk next to the robot to get information out of it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Both Donna and the Doctor turned to see a young woman standing at the side of the desk in between the Doctor and Donna.

"I am sorry, said the doctor hastily putting away his sonic screwdriver before she saw it. "But why shouldn't I do what?"

"You shouldn't try to hack into the information system. The machine will explode, injuring you, and the guards will come and whisk you away, never to be seen again." Her voice was impassive, but her eyes looked so dedicated to what she was doing.

"Umm well can you tell me about the modifications?" asked the intrigued Doctor.

"I am a tour guide and I can answer your questions but fist I need to know your species." He voice now had a hint of hope to it.

"Well, I am human," Donna, said slowly "and he is a time lord, that's what it's called right?" the doctor's face turned red.

"Donna! You don't just blurt that out." His voice had grown and a few people had slowed down to listen in on the conversation.

"Sir! Lower your voice. I have heard what you are and you are not safe in the open please follow me." The guide's voice was hushed but was filled with urgency. She began to walk swiftly to one of the many alcoves in the bustling square. As she stopped just inside it the outline of the door became visible. The Doctor and Donna had been walking close behind and Donna was confused as to why no one had tails and scales.

"Excuse me," said Donna when they had entered through the door into what looked like a modern day pub. "How come you all look like you do, I see no fins or flippers. This just looks like a twenty-first century Earth."

"Donna!" the doctor snapped.

"It's alright," said the guide, "I am Apricot and this is why we all look human." As she said this she slipped off a strange ring covered in symbols that were not translated by the tardis. Her skin turned a milky white and was almost translucent; her hair was a dark brown that looked startlingly dark against her pale face. There were few others in the room but all had taken off their rings and looked more or less the same. "We all started wearing the rings in case the city finally sinks and we need to hide in the human realm. We can't go causing uproar and changing all of history."

"Why don't you leave now?" asked Donna who thought it a logical question.

"If we leave now the royal family will either kill us for leaving the sacred city or the princess will die." Apricot explained.

"Well if the royal family kills you for self-preservation is it really all that bad that the princess dies?" Donna's question caused a look of sadness to well in all the people in the room.

"The princess has worked so hard to keep us alive. She gives up parts of her soul to keep us happy and content. We would not leave her for the sake of ourselves." Apricot's words radiated about the room causing the others to nod in agreement.

The doctor who had been contemplating this all asked, "why not take her with you when you leave?"

Again the sadness returned to the room. "she cannot leave Atlantis until she is married. She is tied to the city until she dies, has a child, or gets married. And since she can't die without defeating the whole point and she can't have a child without a man/husband she has to get married. The problem is no one from Atlantis can marry her and no other man wants to."

"That may change" spoke a dark voice from the corner.


End file.
